No state has been a better barometer of the nation as a whole in presidential elections than Ohio and a historic 2008 election reaffirmed its status as America's bellwether.

Democrat Barack Obama powered his way to a 4.6 percentage point Ohio victory against Republican John McCain by campaigning as if he were running for governor.

Obama won 51.5 percent of the vote to become the first Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 to capture more than 50 percent in Ohio. Even so, Ohio was the most closely contested of the nine states that voted Democratic after supporting Republican George W. Bush in 2004.

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